Roses
by Heartbroken Confession
Summary: "I can't believe I spent years floating around in the time vortex to save your life." Girls really were going to be the death of Natsume.


**I'M REALLY QUITTING AFTER THIS, SCOUT'S HONOR. **But, I am not letting the series that defined my awkward, pre-pubescent years end without me writing a corny story in honor of it.

Be warned. There are **spoilers**. So yeah. _Don't read if you're not on the last few chapters..._

I do not own Gakuen Alice.

* * *

Roses

"_God, _and you had to go and _die_, you complete and total asswipe."

Heartbroken Confession

* * *

Natsume truly did have his work cut out for him. As of late, it seemed as though he could not have even one picosecond to himself and he swore to Gallifrey and back, if his friends didn't stop breathing down his neck, he was going to have all their heads on a rusty pike.

"So." Natsume nearly winced at the ice-cold tone the violet eyed girl adopted as she slid quietly into a spot next to him. "I heard you got Mikan _yellow _roses."

Only Imai Hotaru could make such a ridiculously histrionic sentence sound like he had made a dire mistake. Where did she find the time to practice her Frigid Bitch routine anyway?

Probably the four years she spent floating around in the dark, endless depths of the abyss of time, he mused. His life would probably be significantly simpler had she stayed there, but he'd eat his own eyeballs before he told her that.

"What's your point, Imai?" He really didn't have the patience for this right now. In between dealing with Narumi's mid-life crisis ("_Do you SEE this Natsume? This is a _receding_ hairline and there is no one to blame but you, you shiny, youthful _zombie_. Begone from my wrinkled presence.")_ and the fact that Youichi was starting to discover his hormones (_"Natsume. Why do girls keep fruit in their shirts? I think Mikan keeps clementines in hers because they're a lot smaller than other girls'."_), his social-quota was already filled up for, at minimum, the next two years.

"My point, you _neanderthal_," She scoffed, as if not knowing the significance of yellow flowers was an egregious fault of his character, "is that perhaps you should learn some tact before that pole you have shoved up your ass starts poking out of your mouth. Did you even put any thought into what type of flowers you were buying?" _  
_

He blinked, hoping that she would explain without him having to admit that, yes, he had indeed stood in the Central Town flower shop for longer than he'd like to admit, looking like a pansy while trying to pick out the perfect flowers.

She sighed, throwing her legs up in an unlady-like manner and propping them ungracefully onto the table. "They symbolize friendship, you complete and utter nuisance to society." She shook her head for added effect. "I can't believe I spent years floating around in the time vortex to save your life." _  
_

See, Natsume knew that there was something off about Misaki-sensei's smug grin when he sold him the flowers.

* * *

He expected to find her sulking around the hallways, undoubtedly scaring underclassmen with her banshee-like wailing. Imagine his surprise when he found her seeking refuge in the shade of a tree- _their _tree from earlier times, might he add- looking rather peeved. He made his way to her quietly, claiming the spot next to her the way he used to. She lazily rolled her eyes in his direction before letting out an unimpressed grunt.

"Hey, _friend._" She snarled scathingly.

Natsume almost choked thinking about how annoying this conversation was going to be. He opted not to respond, figuring that it would be safer simply to let her rant first.

She remained silent for a uncharacteristically long moment. As if jumping back and forth between what she wanted to say, she settled for her usual method of talking without thinking beforehand. "I realize that you probably don't know anything about flower language." Well, at least someone in this goddamn school made some sense. "But it was really the fact that you didn't even think to look anything up that gets me." _  
_

As if inspired but her own flow of speech, she shot up from her position on the grass and sat upright. "Because, you know. I gave up my _Alice_ for you."

Natsume opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off by (quite rudely) gesturing at him to be quiet. "Oh, calm your tits, I'm getting to my point. Yes, I realize that I got it back but let's be honest, my powers are probably going to crap out on themselves at any moment. Did you see the size of that Alice stone? I bet it gave your genitals a run for their money as to which are smaller."

"Mature."

"Don't interrupt, sweetheart." Let no one be surprised if he strangled her to death, right here, right now. "I spent months pretending to be okay with the fact that the last time I saw you, you were a mangled up corpse for goodness' sake, and a bunch of irresponsible adults were going to erase my memory and casually dump me in the Japanese countryside." Her nose wrinkled at the last bit. "So irresponsible."

"Not to mention," she continued "I lost years of my memories and spent four years with freakin' amnesia. Imagine that! A young girl like me, living a half-lived life. And I realize that you were dead for basically two months real time, but let's be honest, that was only two seconds for _you_. And technically, Dead Nastume disappeared into the time paradox so this version of you only ever got to the brink of death. I guess that behavior is typical of you, half-assing everything and not quite finishing the job."

"This is ridiculous." Now he was annoyed. "You're trying to argue that the fact that _I almost died but didn't_ is my own fault. If you really want to go down that route, then let me just say that I did kick the bucket the first time! I'm only alive because you and Imai had to be nosey and upset the space-time continuum."

She looked as if her hair had sparked to life in a spasm of rage and he swore that her eyes flashed a red that rivaled his own. "_Exactly! _We risked everything to save you and you couldn't even spend the .20 seconds it takes to Google 'yellow flower meaning'."

"-the fact that you know how long it takes just shows that you didn't know at first either-"

Then she began to sulk. Mikan, Natsume fumed, quite clearly had her stages of grieving mixed up. "It just hurts. You probably just picked those flowers at random didn't you? I knew there was something wrong with my memories. I bet you never set people on fire as a passionate declaration love for me at all. I'm just remembering wrong and you've always been cruel and mean. I knew you were trouble when you walked in-"

"Polka, stop quoting Taylor Swift. You're above that." He sighed, running a hand through his unkempt hair. Girls. They were going to be the (second) death of him. "The sun," he muttered.

She shot him a confused glance. "Yes, good job, Natsume. That is the name of the giant yellow object in the sky. It's roughly the size of your ego."

"If you'd stop insulting me for long enough for me to explain," He snapped. He had neither the patience nor verbal skills for this. Against his will, he felt warmth swell up in his cheeks and he knew he was turning scarlet. "I bought yellow flowers because they reminded me of the sun." "-_That's nice. I'm sure Apollo would love to go to dinner with you sometime_-" "And that reminds me of you."

At this, she turned redder than him.

"I'm alive because of you. Literally." He closed his eyes, reluctantly remembering the four years he spent knowing that she had forgotten him and that he couldn't hold her because damn it, he _deserved _to "I don't know when, but at some point, you and all your stupidity became so important. It was like everything that happened had to revolve around _you._" He let a small smirk creep up on him. "And I somehow didn't mind it."

He didn't get the chance to open his eyes before he was tackled onto his side by the _stupid, but so annoyingly bright _brunette. She tucked herself up to his chest and wrapped herself more carefully around him.

"Okay," she mumbled. "You're forgiven."

He would eat Ruka's pets before he let anyone else hear how _corny_ he was.

* * *

"Hey, Hyuuga, can I be your sun?"

Silence.

Crack.

"Nastume! Stop setting people on fire."


End file.
